The 5 Big Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them by Kevin Epstein at SVPMA Monthly Event October 2007

1. Five Marketing Mistakes Every Manager
Makes (and how to avoid making them)
Kevin Epstein
VP Marketing, Scalent Systems
Author, Marketing Made Easy
kevin@stupidmarketing.com
Please, interrupt me!
Copyright © 2004 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. About Me / “Hello World”
• Marketer, Author, Entrepreneur, Consultant
– Built lawn-care, T-shirt, appliance sales business before
finishing college and coming out to CA
– Buy my book, or write your own (but read the contract first)
• Tech Geek
– Love gadgets. Undergrad in Nuclear Physics.
• Bad at timing stock sales
– Don’t ask me when to buy or sell. Really.
• Good at Marketing?
– Made lots of mistakes, learned from them…
– You be the judge!

3. Shameless Self-Promotional Slide…
• Buy my book
– Tonight, personalized
– http://buynow.stupidmarketing.com
– Chris Shipley (DEMO) recommends it…
• Take my Stanford course
– Stanford Continuing Studies Dept.
– 5 weeks, 1 night per week
– Meet fun people, work in teams, network
– http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/cours
e/department.asp#Business

4. Scalent Systems
• Enterprise Software Startup
– Yes, masochistic.
• Dead, Bare Metal to Live, Connected
Servers… in Five Minutes or Less!
– Make any server-class machine run any
software stack with any network IP and any
storage connection, in boot-time
• You hadn’t heard of VMware, either,
5 years ago
– Skate to where the puck is going to be...
…but let’s talk about Marketing!

5. Five Marketing Mistakes Every Manager Makes (and
how to avoid ‘em)
• Betting On the Big Event
– Gambling Instead Of Planning
• Depending on Others
– Outsourcing the Wrong Things
• Marketing Nonexistent Product
– Non-strategic Hype
• Failing to Measure
– If you didn’t measure it, it didn’t exist
• Adding Complexity
– Confused Prospects = Lost Sales

6. Mistake 1: Betting on the Big Event
Gambling instead of Planning
• Do the Math
– Event profit = [# of potential leads] x
[likelihood of making sale] x [size of
sale] – [total costs of attending event]
• Equip Yourself
– Be the customer – what do they
expect?
• Shop Around
– Are there better-ROI lead
generators?

7. Mistake 2: Depending on Others
Outsourcing the Wrong Things
• Check References
– Reach the unhappy customers, the
people they didn’t list
• Communicate & Align
Expectations
– Write ‘em down, in detail
– When project is done, what are the
results?
– What methods are OK to use? What
aren’t?
• Have a Backup Plan
– What happens when the consultant
doesn’t?

8. Mistake 3: Marketing Nonexistent Product
Non-Strategic Hype
• Understand Customers’
Expectations, Value
– What do they expect and value
of your business?
• Sell What You Have
– Spend time on your benefits;
Listen for futures
• Use Hype Strategically
– The “vision thing” has a
purpose: stalling others or
selling faster now

9. Mistake 4: Failing to Measure
If you didn’t measure it, it doesn’t exist
• Understand what you want to
measure (link to sales)
– Keep metrics to the minimum needed
to link marketing to sales
• Build Measurement In
– Start at the beginning of your
marketing programs. Phone
extension, special email address, pre-
printed response cards, etc
• Change one variable at a time
(no more)
– Change design or location or
vehicle… (not and)

10. Mistake 5: Adding Complexity
Confused Prospects = Lost Sales
• Say it Simply
– Concise, explicit descriptions. Small words.
• Make it Simple to Do
– They’re the ones paying you. Let them.
• Don’t ask too much of your
customers
– Balance value of marketing info against
likelihood & value of sale

11. Summary
• Betting On the Big Event
– Gambling Instead Of Planning
• Depending on Others
– Outsourcing the Wrong Things
• Marketing Nonexistent Product
– Non-strategic Hype
• Failing to Measure
– If you didn’t measure it, it didn’t exist
• Adding Complexity
– Confused Prospects = Lost Sales

12. Thanks / Q&A
If you’re interested in more detail, please try my
book…
Marketing Made Easy
Entrepreneur Magazine Press / McGraw Hill
Amazon, Entrepreneur.com, or Barnes & Noble
(Personalized copies:
http://buynow.stupidmarketing.com)
…or sample my Blog, at
http://blog.stupidmarketing.com
Thanks for your time!